Violence

Women human rights defenders from 19 countries demand an end to the violence and discrimination that continues to put their lives, rights, and indispensable work for justice and equality at risk. Read their recommendations here.

Since 2012, we have collaborated with the Nobel Women’s Initiative and other regional and local partners to hear first-hand from indigenous and rural women leading the defense of land and territory against corrupt mining and extractive projects. Learn more here.

This academic article, published on Sur, contextualizes and analyzes women-led resistance to patriarchy, capitalism, and racism in Central America. In the shadow of Central America's historical violence, JASS authors Ardon and Flores look to feminists and indigenous women as the front line defenders of human rights for themselves, their communities, and the world. Read more to see how women have organized against backlash, repression, and systematic violence, creating an alternative model for survival in the face of an ever-changing landscape.

Throughout the world, many feminists and other women activists working for social justice or gender equality are reluctant to recognize themselves as human rights defenders either because they believe their work goes beyond the human rights framework; because they feel that by naming themselves as such, their political identity as feminists becomes blurred; because they think that the term is too focussed on the law or too dangerous in their particular contexts; because they fear retaliations by the State or other groups; or simply because the term does not appeal to them or sometimes beca

Violence against women activists continues to rise. Unfortunately, despite considerable effort, responses to this violence are coming up short. Given the urgency of the situation, JASS and allies are questioning the underlying assumptions guiding activist safety, and bringing a feminist and movement building perspective to rethinking the approach.

JASS' WInnet Shamuyarira reflects on a Cross Movement Dialogue that brought together women activists from Zimbabwe, Malawi and South Africa to identify and map the key actors, politics and policies driving the “closing space for civil society” and increased backlash against women activists in Southern Africa.